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Cells from the rare individuals who naturally control HIV infection have been the focus of investigation for nearly 15 years with the aim of elucidating their specific features. Following research on the ANRS CO21 CODEX and CO6 PRIMO cohorts, scientists from the Institut Pasteur have described the characteristics of CD8 immune cells in these “HIV controller” subjects. The unique antiviral power of these immune cells can be attributed to an optimal metabolic program that confers persistence and the ability to react effectively against infected cells. Working ex vivo, the scientists successfully reprogrammed cells from infected non-controller individuals to give them the same antiviral potency as controllers’ cells. Their findings are published in the journal Nature Metabolism on July 12, 2019.

Current HIV treatments need to be taken for life by those infected as antiretroviral therapy is unable to eliminate viral reservoirs lurking in immune cells. Scientists have identified the characteristics of CD4 T lymphocytes that are preferentially infected by the virus. Thanks to metabolic activity inhibitors, the researchers have managed to destroy these infected cells, or ‘reservoirs’, ex vivo. Cell Metabolism, March 2019

A young woman now aged 18 and a half, who at birth was HIV-infected via mother-to-child transmission (during pregnancy or at delivery), is in virological remission, despite not having taken any antiretroviral therapy for the last 12 years. Monitored in the French ANRS pediatric cohort, this young woman seems to have benefited from the treatment that was initiated shortly after her birth and stopped approximately six years later. Her case suggests that long-term remission after early treatment is possible in children infected by HIV since birth, as demonstrated in adults in the ANRS VISCONTI study.